Happy Christmas!
It was only in the fourth century that 25 December emerged as the agreed date of the Nativity. The date was chosen not because it was connected with the birth of Jesus, but because it was the Roman festival of Natalis Invicti, which marked the birth of the sun. This idea of combining the cult of Christ with the winter solstice was a stroke of genius as it coupled the celebration of the return of the sun from its apparent death on the shortest day of the year with the arrival of a new God.
Astonishingly after all these centuries, the older belief has survived because Christmas remains elementally connected with gathering around a warm fire, eating lots, hoping that the days will get longer, that the children will continue to laugh and that their parents will be granted another year. This day of deliberate collective self-indulgence expresses the real meaning of Christmas — enjoying food and drink, revelling in company and keeping the fire of life lighting.
On ChristmasAnd is it true? And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A Baby in an ox's stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me?
And is it true? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant,
No love that in a family dwells,
No caroling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare
That God was Man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.John Betjeman (1906-1984)
Rainy Day wishes all its visitors a very Happy Christmas!
